Music of Spain and Brazil featured at the Depot

Saturday

Mar 23, 2013 at 4:00 AM

"Las Tres Gitanas" tonight at 7 p.m.

By Don SteeleDodge City Daily Globe

The Depot Theater Company is expanding its schedule of performances by bringing in other performance groups.The company will present "Las Tres Gitanas," at 7 p.m. today at the Depot Theater. Tickets are $10 and will be available at the door."We're reaching out to bring other types of concerts to Dodge," said Connie Penick, director of the company."The concerts we're bringing in are more intimate in performance and wouldn't play very well at larger venues like the Expo Center, the arena or the Civic Center," she said.The first such concert, in collaboration with the Garden City Convention and Visitors Bureau and partially sponsored by the Depot Theater Guild, features three veteran performers as the group's name suggests."Las Tres Gitanas," (The Three Gypsies), includes Priscilla Hallberg, violinist; Cynthia Egger, guitarist and Tamara Carson, Spanish dancer in an evening of music and dance from Spain and Brazil."We have what would be considered classical Spanish music on the program but there's also the Bossa Nova and other dances from Brazil," Hallberg said in a phone interview Friday."The concert is designed to be entertaining — something you don't need classical training to enjoy," she said.The concert features a multi-media visual aspect, with slides depicting areas that the music comes from, paintings featuring musical instruments, translations of some of the texts, and a series of images of the moon, which is a central theme of one of the selections."It will be an additional dimension to the evening," Hallberg said.The concert, which was performed at the Community Congregational Church in Garden City Friday evening, is the first in a planned series called "Strings and Friends."The series is designed to spotlight various styles of string playing."I'm thinking of this series as a way to raise awareness of string playing and the different styles as part of our student program called 'The String Academy of the Plains,'" Hallberg said.Upcoming concerts in the series will feature a string quartet, a program of solo violin music from the French Impressionism period, and a bluegrass group called Run Boy Run.Run Boy Run has been featured on Garrison Keillor's "Prairie Home Companion" radio show and will offer workshops while in the area on topics such as improvisation and the business side of the music industry.Proceeds for the concert at the Depot will go to benefit Depot programs, while future concerts at other venues will benefit Hallberg's string academy, a 501 (c)(3) not-for-profit organization.A reception will precede the Depot concert, with light refreshments and a display of Fred Harvey memorabilia and other railroad-related materials in the theater gallery.

Up next for the Depot Theater Company will be "Fox on the Fairway," a comedy by Ken Ludwig opening April 12.

IF YOU GOWhat: "Las Tres Gitanas," the music of Spain and Brazil featuring violin, guitar and dance.When: 7 p.m. todayWhere: The Depot Theater, 101 E. Wyatt Earp Blvd.Tickets: $10 includes pre-show reception Tickets will be available at the door